At-risk Beckford’s Tower secures early National Lottery support and starts fundraising campaign

At-risk Beckford’s Tower secures early National Lottery support and starts fundraising campaign

We’re delighted to report that Beckford’s Tower has received initial support* from The National Lottery Heritage Fund for the redevelopment project ‘Our Tower’: Reconnecting Beckford’s Tower and Landscape for all.

Development funding of £422,600 towards a development programme of £480,778 has been awarded to help Bath Preservation Trust progress their plans to apply for a full National Lottery grant of £2.5m at a later date to complete the project.

The Tower is in urgent need of conservation, having been added to the National ‘At Risk’ Register in 2019. In addition to addressing this conservation need and creating a new museum experience inside the building, our project will also restore the Grotto Tunnel, improve access to the cemetery and create new footpaths, produce interpretation and trails for the lost Tower landscape and use renewable energy to illuminate the Tower for all to see and enjoy.

Thanks to this funding, work to develop the project and to continue our engagement with the local community will start in 2020 with, if successful in securing the full National Lottery grant, major capital works in 2022.

Caroline Kay, Chief Executive of BPT stated: “We’re delighted that we’ve received this support thanks to National Lottery players. Grade I Beckford’s Tower is one of our most significant 1820s British buildings and its setting on an escarpment above Bath, with its bright golden lantern, has been admired by generations. It’s great to know that we are a step closer to preserving it for another century and connecting this national treasure to an even wider audience. It is now that the hard work can begin not least of fundraising for our share of the costs of the full project and securing the Tower’s future, for which we will aim to raise £1m.”

Read our full press release here.